Never Have I Ever?
by SilverHuntresses
Summary: A present for Flything Through Clouds' birthday. Possible sequel of #AWarriorsLonelyQuest.


Her eyes opened slowly, blinking fast at the light coming through the window into the room.

She glanced around before her eyes finally opened wide and awake, almost screaming and waking her companion up. Her mind was hyperventilating, it didn't want to believe what her eyes were showing her. She had to pinch herself several times to prove herself it wasn't a dream. Finally, her hands found her face and head and started to grab her hair, asking herself the ultimate question.

 _How did I end up here?!_

 _Let's rewind, shall we?_

* * *

 _Two weeks before..._

Reyna Ramirez-Arellano was stroking her forehead to stop the upcoming headache.

Senate meetings were starting to get annoying and monotonous. No wonder why her fellow Praetor Frank Zhang occupied his time in drawings. Luckily, the drawings weren't doodles, which proved that Frank did paid attention to the meeting. Reyna, however, was ready to take a nap and stare at the ceiling all day.

Senate meeting were becoming a very tedious task in her duties, especially when they are always of the same topics: increase the defenses, fight the Greek, what plans could the enemy have. You know, _normal_ meetings.

Reyna had never been normal. She had embraced that very early in life and had not regretted it. But now, she was seventeen-almost-eighteen years old, she felt the need to rebel, to be free for one day. Especially after the exciting adventure that her friends Nico di Angelo and Will Solace had taken her the previous night.

Nico and Will had taken the uptight-and-rule-follower Reyna to a nightclub for the first time in her life. And while the experience didn't start out great, it ended up with a bittersweet moment that had made her space out five times in the first hour of work. She knew exactly what it was, but she could not believe that it was happening to her. Again.

Reyna Avila Ramirez-Arellano was having a crush on someone.

She could still remember him. The guy was tall, maybe 6'7", with brown hair and soft eyes that matched. His body was built- not in a Legion way -just built. That night, he was wearing normal clothes like a shirt with some jeans and a leather jacket, kind of similar to Nico back in the day. But it was his smile what had Reyna distracted all morning.

Frank had recognized the signs, but wisely said nothing, only smiling at her fellow Praetor. Will had returned very drunk to remember and Nico was keeping silent with his enigmatic smile, which eased the fears of Reyna of making it public. But, it grew other fears.

 _How to react now?_

This guy wasn't one of hers. He wasn't a demigod. She couldn't explain to him ' _Yeah, I don't own a phone because monsters can caught up with me and kill me. Also, my mother is an immortal deity that belongs to an ancient religion and they are still alive in the world._ '

That could have never worked.

The next day, Reyna was having lunch with her friends and Nico, Frank, Will and Frank's girlfriend, Hazel Levesque, were discussing when was the best time to live in. Obviously, both Nico and Hazel argued that their times were very bad- Nico being born before World War II in Benito Mussolini's Italy and Hazel being born right after the segregation in the United States. That was until Will said something, in an exasperated tone.

"We live like Mormons!"

Reyna thought that was the perfect excuse and made her way out Camp Jupiter's limits- not Terminus' limits or she'd never hear the end of it -and decided to directly call him. She had kept the card he had given her that night as if it was a precious treasure. She was getting impatient with all the ringing, but the air disappeared from her lungs when she heard him again.

"Hello?"

"H-hello?" Reyna repeated, as if having to reboot her brain. _You're a Praetor! Focus yourself!_ "I'm speaking with Dylan Trenton?"

"Is he speaking." His voice held a bit of confusion, but was firm.

"Hello, Dylan. It's... It's Reyna..." The seconds after that admission were eternal for Reyna. _Would he regret what he did the other night? Would he try to apologize for it?_ She didn't expect him to start chuckling at her.

"Hello, Reyna. I was fearing you'd not call me."

"Not at all!" She replied, a bit too quickly. When she realized of that, she tried to control herself. "I mean, I have a good excuse for not calling before..."

"I would imagine so, you don't look like the kind of girls who give mix signals." _Is it me or is getting hot around here?_ "But I'm glad you called me..."

"Me too..." She whispered, blushing for the first time in a long time. "I've just been very busy..." She was ready to give the excuse she had planned, but he interrupted her.

"Well, you'd have to make a spot for a break in two weeks..." That confused Reyna greatly, forgetting all about her excuse.

"Why would I?"

"Because in two weeks is my birthday and I'd like you to come. I was actually fearing you'd never call and I could not invite you and I really want you there." Reyna's eyes opened wide and was glad he couldn't see her at the moment. He wanted her in his birthday party?! But, they barely know each other!

"It's a good thing I called then..." She surprised herself saying, earning a chuckle from him. _Gods, you're not making this any easier... or harder._ "Any- anything I should be warned of?"

"I'd recommend you warn everyone you won't return till the next day."

* * *

Reyna spent the rest of the two weeks prior to Dylan's birthday in extreme anxiety.

Onviously, she didn't let it show.

Frank had found out by accident when Reyna asked him a not-so-subtle question. Frank replied with honesty and directed her to Hazel, who was more than willing to help her and to keep the secret. Reyna was happy she could be a normal girl just for a couple of hours, giggling and gossiping with Hazel, even if she was a couple of years younger that her- younger in appearance.

Reyna was nervous about the whole ' _you won't return till the next day_ '. She had theorized and discarded it right away that Dylan's intentions weren't noble ones. She had heard how Venus' girls had sleepovers all the time and he had told her that some of his cousins were coming too, so she assumed he meant that.

When she finally arrived to Dylan's apartment complex- she was impressed that he was a little older than her and as responsible -she felt her nerves failing to her. She grabbed the edges of Hazel's borrowed jacket and took a deep breath before ringing the door bell. A distorted voice came through some kind of speaker and asked who she was.

"It's Reyna."

As if some kind of switch had happened, several voices started to speak through the machine, mixing female with males. Reyna took a step back, ready to battle the steel machine, when the front door opened and Dylan appeared, looking a little flushed. He was wearing similar clothes to the ones he wore when they first met and for Reyna, he looked great.

"I'm glad you could make it..." He greeted her, inviting her inside. Reyna nodded and walking inside. "You look great, by the way." After that, Reyna blushed and looked at her borrowed clothes.

"Thanks, um... This is for you." She handed him his present, a little embarrassed. She didn't know what to get him, she didn't know him that well, but the card he had handed to her said he was a book editor, so she went to the safe present- a book. "I- I hope you like it... It was very hard-"

"Claudius's _Etruscan-Latin Dictionary_." Dylan read the title of the book, a mix of awe and shock in it. "Reyna, where did you find this treasure?" Reyna frowned, as it was a very popular book in New Rome and every Legionary had its copy. They never knew when they would encounter Etruscan's forgotten language.

"Uh, that's my personal copy...?" Dylan gaped at her and Reyna mistook it from taking a book from her. "Don't worry, I can get another one-" She stopped talking when Dylan placed the book back in her hands. _Oh, so he didn't like it..._ However, he talked before she could take the wrong conclusions.

"Reyna, it's the best present that anybody had given me, but I can't accept it." Reyna frowned, not understanding. "Reyna, that book is a historical treasure, it was thought to be lost forever." Finally, it dawned to Reyna why was Dylan acting like that. He thought she was giving him a priceless lost book, when in reality it costed her fifteen denarii. Expensive, but not that much.

"Oh... But, it's not lost." Dylan stared at her, perplex. "Where I live, everyone has a copy, we... we didn't know it was lost text..." Dylan interrupted her with a hug, making Reyna blush like a beet, but she hugged him back.

"Then, may I have my present back?" He asked, making her chuckle softly. She gave him the book back and he invited her in.

* * *

The rest of the night wasn't as exciting as the greeting.

That was until someone decided to play ' _Never Have I Ever_ '.

Reyna looked at Dylan's cousins- who bombed her with questions the second she crossed the apartment's door -not even understanding the name of the game. Dylan saw her confusion face and told her it was a drinking game. Reyna rolled her eyes and shook her head, she was saying pass. But when Dylan's cousins started to whine- they had been drinking since she arrived and were very drunk -she and Dylan bonded over peer pressure.

The rules were simple: drink if you have done the things mentioned and explain why. Reyna was surprised by the amount of bottles that were already empty and the amount that were ready to be empty. Dylan looked as if he wanted to cry and apologized for his cousins in advance. Reyna's strategy was simple, try not to drink as much as them.

Fortuna was not in her side tonight.

"Never have I ever been arrested." _I was kidnapped, not arrested..._

"Never have I ever stolen from someone." _Hell!_ She drank slowly and looked down in shame, but kept quiet.

"Never have I ever sneaked away from home." _I haven't eve_ _n_ _sneaked away from Camp Jupiter..._

"Never have I ever fallen in love with someone." Reyna hesitated, but took a drink, sighing. She caught the glances Dylan's cousins were giving her and Dylan's glances on her. She slumped her shoulders down and gripped her glass tighter.

"Never have I ever been on a date." _Dateless, so..._

"Never have I ever killed someone."

 _Smash!_

Reyna's glass had shattered in her hand, but she hadn't taken notice. Nor that everyone was fuzzing over her bleeding hand. Nor that her hand stung because of the mix of pure alcohol and the blood. She simply got up from her seat and walked to the balcony she had spotted before. Her hands quickly found the rail and gripped it tight.

She was stupid to believe she could ever be normal. She wasn't even normal among her own people, everyone either feared her or respected her, but she had little friends. But those friends didn't gave her normalcy. She was the third wheel everywhere they would go and she hated that with passion. Hylla wasn't around to look after her or even talk to her. She didn't have Scipio anymore to be with.

She was alone.

Decided, she turned to escape this place when she found her way out blocked by a body. Dylan's. _The humiliation wasn't over, apparently..._ So, she decided to cut to the chase.

"I know all those things said in there, all the glasses drank give an impression of me." She started, not looking at him directly. "But, even when those things are true, you don't know the circumstances of them, nor I can give you the details of why I did those things. And, don't worry, you won't have to deal with me anymore. Keep the book as a gift." She finished, trying to pass him by before she started to cry.

However, those weren't Dylan's plans, as he grabbed her arm gently the second she was next to him. Surprised, Reyna looked up and saw his brown eyes looking at him with curiosity, but not hatred or disgust. Reyna lost it and began to sob, quickly finding her way into Dylan's chest.

* * *

 _Present time..._

Reyna groaned while remembering what had happened last night. She was mortified and felt completely humiliated, though she felt happy both herself and her companion were fully dressed. She wanted to kill Dylan's cousins as they started this whole mess, but an arm pulled her towards her companion's body gently, stopping her mind. Literally, her mind was blank.

"Good morning..." Dylan's deep voice filled her ears. "Feel any better...?" She must have given him some kind of answer, because he smiled. "Good. Want breakfast before going back?" Again, an answer must have been given, but she couldn't remember which one was. "You know what? Never have I ever woken up next to a girl..." He whispered in her ear, before getting up from bed and leaving Reyna alone.

"Never have I ever wanted to do this before until now..."

* * *

 _Birthday present to my friend and fellow writer,_ _ **Flying Through Clouds**_ _! Happy 17th birthday, sweetie! Hope you enjoy this!_


End file.
